Proposed Development Area
Proposed Development Area
OUTLINE
The latest proposal at Rushy Bank is for 37 dwellings. The site is several hundred metres from the existing settlement edge, on the west side of the river and floodplain. The site adjoins an ancient woodland. It sits at the heart of the Wychwood Project area on the approach from the town to Wychwood Forest. Charlbury is itself a designated Conservation Area within the AONB.
Originally promoted by a local developer Rushy BP Limited, and including a local self build group and a young dementia facility, the latest proposal is solely a housing proposal and is led by London based Launcelot Investments and the developer HarperCrewe.
ONGOING LEGAL ACTION
On 16th January 2024 the High Court will again consider a judicial review action by FOWOC regarding West Oxfordshire District Council’s approval of a contentious housing estate at Rushy Bank in Charlbury in the Cotswolds National Landscape. This action is backed by 56 supporters pledging over £21,000. WODC continues to defend the action with public money in spite of the High Court’s preliminary decision that WODC’s action was arguably unlawful.
In March 2023 a High Court judge found that WODC had failed to deliver the ancient woodland protections required by its own planning permission. The judge highlighted that the approved ancient woodland buffer was already only one third the size of the minimum required under national standards and local plan policy. WODC’s decision was quashed and the Council was ordered to pay £35,000 towards the Charity’s costs. This was the second time that the High Court has intervened in the Council’s approval of this development.
In November 2023 the developer submitted yet another application for the site, conceding that the innovative young dementia facility which had been included in the original application to draw support, was not in fact viable. The application site does not comply with development plan policies for location, affordable housing, ancient woodland or protected landscape.